Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
To begin, this psalm is
so famous that even though the translators of the New International Version
translated it as “through the darkest valley,” they added a foot note saying, “Or,
through the shadow of death.” Poetically speaking, we just can’t get better
than that image.
The past week has been a
sort of dark valley. My knee started hurting. No, that’s certainly not a valley
of the shadow of death, but not knowing what the problem is means that I could
be doing more damage. It seemed important for me to find out. I had an
appointment with an osteopath this morning, and they redid the x-rays done last
Friday and the “there’s good space between the bones” turned into “Um, there’s
not enough space between the bones where it hurts.” Today - my first cortisone shot.
When I got home, I looked
at the paper I got. They have suggested getting physical therapy, but it’s the
diagnosis that tickles me. Specifically, it’s an Internally Deranged Knee (I.D.K.) I’ve already shared that on Facebook. It’s just hilarious. And since I’m
playing games with it, it’s not much of an issue.
But, the past several
days have been a bit anxious for a second reason. I’ve gotten some bills, and I’m
wondering again what I’m supposed to do when it comes time to pay the rent on
my trailer again. This is going to be an ongoing back-and-forth, I think.
Then, there was last
night. As I was trying to fall asleep, the wind picked up, so I closed the
window over my head. For what probably wasn’t even an hour, the wind blew. It
didn’t gust, it just blew - one long, sustained rush of wind that set me to
listen for the freight train sound of a tornado. Lightning flashed, thunder
rumbled, and rain pelted, but it was the wind that cause concern. If not a
tornado, would the force topple one of my palm trees into the trailer or my
truck? Would the hurricane shutters be damaged? Should I brave the elements and
shut them?
It this one that I need
to spend more time on. When I got up this morning, both signs were on my
signpost. Strong winds tend to send them flying. All four of my candle holders
were still in their macrame holders. The lightweight window screens that I have
perched on some shelves on my porch were where they’d been. In other words, for
all the noise involved in the wind, the wind wasn’t very strong. The same tends
to happen with rain. On my roof it sounds like a deluge. When I step outsides,
it’s a gentle rain. Another lesson in perspective.
And that brings to mind a
comment about perspective I’ve made many times. People seem to like to post
things that say that if you aren’t suffering like this poor, pitiful person who
is the epitome of pitifulness and poverty, you have no right to complain, because
you’re not really suffering. If it’s not
120 in the shade, you mustn’t complain about being too warm (though they complain
if it gets below 65-70.) Recently, someone shared a meme that said that people
with strong minds suffer without complaining and people with weak minds
complain without suffering.
In all these cases, we’re
basically saying, “why can’t you be like _____?” We try to set their
perspective in terms of their comparison to some “superhero” of whatever
characteristic. This is toxic. At the same time, we clearly do need to put
things in perspective. It’s healthy for us to do so.
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